Elder care, institutionalized and deinstitutionalized living, and independent living for the disabled and injured are all thriving industries in the United States and across the world. Unfortunately, as humans age or become infirmed mobility and ambulation becomes increasingly difficult, and the ability to take care of oneself often likewise fades. Nevertheless, a great many elderly persons are capable of taking care of themselves, but may on occasion, require assistance. This is similarly true of many disabled or infirm persons, or persons in need of physical therapy, and the like.
Many products have been developed to assist the elderly, disabled, or infirmed (also referred to collectively herein as “elderly”) in their own private residences, and their caregivers, or in independent living, assisted care or nursing home environments. As these terms are used herein, a private home or residential environment is defined to include a person's private residence; an independent living environment is defined to include a living environment dedicated to elderly persons capable of living, for the most part, on their own; an assisted living environment is defined to include an environment in which the elderly are capable of living at least partially on their own, but may occasionally, or frequently, require assistance; and a nursing care environment is defined to include an environment in which an elderly person is no longer capable of living on his or her own. Further, an assisted living environment might include an in- or out-patient rehab facility, a hospital, or the like.
Products provided to assist in these types of environments may include, by way of non-limiting example, products that can help an elderly person at least partially support his or her weight, and/or that can assist an elderly person in calling for assistance when needed, such as an emergency bracelet, necklace, or the like capable of dialing 911 on behalf of the elderly person; bathing and/or body cleaning equipment, such as handholds, bath lifts, shower seats, hand-held reaching devices, supports, and foot drying assistance; and assistive measures for use of the toilet, and the like. Assistive products, such as those that assist to transfer or otherwise move elderly persons requiring greater amounts of assistance may include a crane-type lift, such as for patient lifting and water therapy, a bath lift, a toilet assist, a bedside lift, a chair lift, and mobility devices such as scooters, wheelchairs, or the like.
However, none of these products or prior-art embodiments is designed specifically for assisting an elderly person with one of the most frequent occurrences in elder care or self-care namely, assisting an elderly person who has fallen onto the floor, and is unable to lift his or her own weight to get back off the floor. Although very frequently in such situations the elderly person on the floor is uninjured, nevertheless, a call to 911 oftentimes is placed. This may be for example, because the elderly person is unable to reach a chair to support his or her weight in a private residence; work rules prohibit resident personnel or caregivers to assist an elderly person who has fallen due to a potential of risk of injury to resident personnel or to the elderly person. Consequently, an uninjured elderly person on the floor often must wait the arrival of emergency medical personnel, and is subject to embarrassment, or worse yet, time spent alone on the floor due to a lack of desire or ability to call 911, during such occurrences. Needless to say, such solutions, or the lack of solutions, increase not only the expense and time to solve the elderly person's placement on the floor, but additionally unnecessarily increase the stress level of the elderly person. As will be appreciated increased stress, in and of itself, can have an adverse effect on the general health of an elderly person. Also, even well trained care givers and First Responders are prone to injury themselves when assisting a person who has fallen to the floor.
Therefore, the need exists for an improved device that operates at floor level, that is accessible to an elderly person and/or a caregiver, and that is capable of transferring and/or lifting an elderly, disabled or infirm (or injured) person off the floor to at least a seated position or vice versa.